Sports Illustrated
Rick Pitino has brought St. John’s back to national relevance.
A program that was dormant for so long prior to Pitino’s arrival won 30 games, swept the Big East regular-season and tournament trophies, and perhaps most importantly had the city of New York buzzing about college basketball again. The season may have ended sooner than expected in shocking fashion to Arkansas in the Round of 32, but St. John’s has proven it has the resources (and obviously the coach) to have staying power at the top of the sport.
The offseason at St. John’s was active. Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis Jr. hit the portal before eventually staying in the NBA draft, with things at St. John’s seemingly souring in real time in the closing minutes of that Arkansas defeat. But with the talent accessible to St. John’s in the portal, the loss of Luis (regardless of how good he was last season) is manageable. I’d argue St. John’s kept its most important player in Zuby Ejiofor, a two-way force around the rim and an essential element of St. John’s aggressive defense. He may never anchor an offense given his limitations as a post scorer, but he’s an elite secondary option on that end and one of the best bigs in the country.
Much of the rest of the roster is new faces, but this is a deeper and more talented group top to bottom than last season. And that should scare the rest of college basketball.
Projected Starting Lineup
PG: Oziyah Sellers
SG: Ian Jackson
SF: Joson Sanon
PF: Bryce Hopkins
C: Zuby Ejiofor
Key Reserves: PG Dylan Darling, G Kelvin Odih, F Dillon Mitchell
Key Additions
It’s no secret St. John’s was one of the worst shooting teams in the country last season. It ranked in the bottom 25 nationally in both three-point rate and percentage. That be a problem this season with its new personnel. Oziyah Sellers (Stanford) is a sharpshooter who made 40% from deep last season. Ian Jackson comes in from North Carolina with a reputation as more scorer than pure shooter, but his three-point stroke might be the best part of his game at this point. He made nearly 60 threes at 40% last season. Another former elite recruit with shotmaking juice is Joson Sanon, whose difficult shot diet at Arizona State made being efficient a challenge, but he’s a talented shooter with impressive touch. Dylan Darling also shot it well at his previous stop. It’s hard to imagine this team taking tons of threes, but they should be significantly improved on that end.
Up front, St. John’s boosted its size, physicality and athleticism. Bryce Hopkins has already proven he’s an All–Big East–caliber player at Providence. He has barely played over the last two years due to a knee injury, but he’s another dominant rebounder and physical force up front. Dillon Mitchell has bounced around and is on school No. 3, but his defensive upside is elite because of his freakish athleticism.
Causes for Concern
Last season, St. John’s had ample playmaking experience (Deivon Smith and Kadary Richmond) and almost no shooting. Now, St. John’s has ample shooting/scoring … and almost no point guard play. Pitino referred to Jackson as a likely option at that spot when he committed, but he’s very much a score-first player who posted just a 7% assist rate last season. This summer, Pitino said, “There are no point guards anymore,” and suggested some form of positionless basketball that many teams in the NBA deploy. And in the fall, Pitino said he expects Sellers, who has a whopping 71 assists in 93 career college games, to be the starting PG. Consider me skeptical of this PG-less approach, especially with all three of Jackson, Sanon and Sellers having posted extremely low assist rates throughout their career. That leaves things in the hands of Darling, an undersized true floor general who struggled to get on the floor at Washington State but starred a year ago at Idaho State. Don’t be surprised if, almost by default, Darling becomes an essential piece … even if it means taking a more talented player off the floor.
The Bottom Line
Pitino’s elite defensive scheme with this amount of size and athleticism basically ensures this group will be one of the most imposing teams on that end of the floor this season. That combined with the added three-point shooting raises the ceiling of this group higher than last season’s team, though shaky point guard play could be what holds Pitino’s team back from a true breakthrough in March.